Monday, December 12, 2011

Feature Spotlight on The Literary Reading World of @sylviahubbard1: Bumped By Sibylla Nash @starbabyla via @aambookclub

Bumped By Sibylla Nash

What happens when you’re blindsided by betrayal and happy hour is no longer an option?

Elle Nixon seems to have the perfect life. As a music PR maven and party girl on the L.A.
social scene, she attends the hottest parties and has a roster of
artists that reads like the who’s who of Billboard magazine.

Her
upwardly mobile bound boyfriend lavishes her with plenty of gifts and attention until he
disappears…during the middle of a high-profile fraud investigation into
his investment firm by the FBI. Add an unplanned pregnancy to the mix
and suddenly, it’s not so fun anymore to walk a mile in her Louboutins.

Will Elle’s search for answers help or destroy her as she confronts the past and tries to reinvent her future?

Excerpt:

AFTER A FULL DAY of sightseeing in Paris with eight writers and then a sound check at thefamed Olympia, I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and sleep. Long and hard. I unlockedmy hotel room, took two steps in and flung myself face down on the bed, landing on top of the
scratchy, green bedspread with my high heels and short trench coat still on. My room was the lengthof my arm span, which was fine on a day like today. Tiny, dark, enclosed spaces couldn’t make mefeel any worse.

I buried my face in the pillow and tried to stave off the nausea. It felt like the beginning of theflu and it had followed me from Los Angeles to Paris, and had dug its heels in at the hotel along theChamps Elysees. It didn’t help that Paris hadn’t gotten the memo that it was spring, or maybe I
didn’t read the memo that said to pack layers of clothes. Either way, it was damp and chilly outside.

It was hard to look chic in goose bumps, no matter how cute my shoes were, and my Louboutinswere hot; save for the beating they were taking from all the cobblestone walkways.

I checked the time on my cell phone. I had less than two hours before I had to wrangleeveryone back on the bus for the main purpose of the trip, watching one of the biggest hip hopartists in the world, Cameron perform at the Olympia, one of the oldest concert halls in Paris. He
was signed to Savage Rhythms, the record label that employed me as a publicist and subsidized mystiletto habit.

My phone chimed and a text message from my friend Justine came through. Growing up, weused to live four doors down from one another in New Jersey and had been as inseparable as cake
and ice cream at a birthday party. Now, living on opposite coasts, we were like caviar and a bottle ofhundred-year-old scotch, only on special occasions.

Happy B-day Ellie! Hope ur enjoying ur trip in city of love!  :> :>)

She included her usual assortment of happy faces and other crazy icons that always made mewonder if she dictated her text messages to her 12-year-old.

Bleh! Another birthday. I grabbed a pillow and put it over my face. Born four years apart, my
sister Evie and I shared the same birthday. I’d much rather pretend the day didn’t exist. I moved thepillow and rolled over on my stomach to send Justine a quick message.35. Yaay. I’m working & how much fun can it really b w/my man on another continent?

Before she could reply, my phone rang.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!” Diego Rivera’s baritone sang in my ear withonly the slightest of interference from across the Atlantic. I smiled, happy to avert a trip down
memory lane. Even after two and a half years of dating, the sound of his voice still made mystomach tingle with erratic butterflies…or it could have been the escargot from the other night. Twowords. Never. Again.

Sibylla
Nash is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and author. She has
written about a variety of topics that have appeared in numerous
magazines and newspapers. She is also the author of several books
including DreamCity, Baby Modeling & Beyond: From the Stroller to the Red Carpet and her newest novel, Bumped. She holds a degree from the University of Southern California in print journalism and is the extremely proud mom of a young actress. You can find her on the web at sibyllanash.com, divaluscious.com, starbabyla.com, bumpedthenovel.com on Facebook and tweets @starbabyla.

Get to Know the Author:

1.) How did you begin my journey as an author?
I started off as a freelance writer but as an avid reader, novels
were always in my future. This is my fifth book – all independently
released - and it’s been a long work-in-progress! When I released my
first novel <gasp> eleven years ago, life was pretty different.
The author tag line on the back of that book (DreamCity) read something
like “Sibylla Nash lives in Los Angeles with her dog.” Since then, I
became a mom, the dog died, I moved back to NJ and then moved back
to LA. Life happens and I think that’s part of what helps one grow as a
writer. Experiencing and living life and then obsessing and rehashing
the details, exploring the “what if’s” and “could be’s” in the pages of
the worlds we create.

2.) What compelled or inspired you to write this book?
Who hasn’t had that one relationship where you’re scratching your
head after the fact asking yourself, how could I not see this? I wanted
to explore betrayal in such way that seemed more organic. You really go
through stages of grief after being betrayed and I wanted to show a
character dealing with the ultimate betrayal, which is not necessarily
the physical, cheating act. I wanted to take this character from point A
of thinking everything’s great to point B where she’s like oh my gosh,
who is this person? I can rattle off a list of women in that past few
years that have been through a very public and humiliating scandal like
Sandra Bullock, Maria Shriver, Elin Woods, etc where they’re with
someone who totally turns out to be so different with the emotional and
physical cheating. For the public, that’s the big story but for them,
life goes on and they have to pick up the pieces.

3.) How do you develop the plot?
I use index cards, and I like to break the story up into three parts, which is from Syd
Fields screenwriting technique. I plot it out and usually deviate from
many of my plot points, but I always have an idea of where I’m going and
I definitely know where I want to end up.

4.) How long did it take to write Bumped?
Bumped has been a labor of love for quite a few years. I always
thought my second novel after DreamCity would be a sequel but the
characters in Bumped demanded to be written. DreamCity was written
before I became a mom and Bumped was written late at night, in between
auditions for my daughter and play dates. It has taken quite a few
years and revisions and was finally birthed in August 2011.

5.) What types of books do you like to read?
I have a very eclectic taste and will read everything from horror,
mystery, thriller, self-help, history and anything else that catches my
eye. I’ll read it on the Kindle or in printed form, whichever I can get
my hands on first. I’m not a die-hard purist and love the
opportunities that e-books offer.

6.) How do you feel about selling digital books vs. selling in a brick and mortar store?
I love it! That coupled with social media allows me to find and
connect with a wider audience that was harder to reach with my previous
books. It certainly levels the playing field and allows new voices to be
heard without having to fight through the gatekeepers of the old guard.

7.) What’s next?
I’m updating my guide, Baby Modeling & Beyond. So much
has changed since I wrote it six years ago and there seems to be an even
bigger market of moms who are curious about getting their kids started
in the business. I’m also re-releasing my first novel DreamCity at
the end of the year. There’s a fun sequel to that which will be out
next year. I’m staying pretty busy. I have so many stories in my head
bouncing around that are demanding to get out and strut their stuff on
the page or screen.

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